What we witness on forums like this is people assume that Olympus overpriced a camera that they assume is a replacement for the EM5, or the camera every EM5 owner should feel compelled to upgrade to. That's not the case, and anyone who really thinks things through needs to consider a couple of things.

Exactly how important is the initial selling price for a high end camera?

I know the price is important for P&S cameras, and for entry level ILCs, but once you migrate to the high end of the market, those customers spend much more on lenses than they do on their camera. At that level, lenses become really important, and M4/3 has assembled a nice lens catalog with plenty of options at every quality level.

I thought that $1000 was a fair price for my EM5, especially when you consider how much inflation has reduced the value of the dollar. Eleven years ago I paid $500 for an Olympus C4000 Zoom, and spending that much seemed to hurt more back then. Of course... back then it cost around a dollar to buy a gallon of gas or a pound of coffee too.

Olympus really did well with the EM5, and a year and a half later it is still a very desirable camera. When discounted to around $750 or so, it becomes a value leader, considering the performance and feature set.

And now we have the EM1, that sits above the EM5, as a huge upgrade for anyone who never bought an EM5, or for anyone who owns high end 4/3 lenses. But it should be noted that MOST M4/3 users have never owned a 4/3 lens or 4/3 camera. So this advantage is really something for the 4/3 faithful who migrated to M4/3. And Olympus must be commended for not abandoning those customers.

With the advent of the PRO lenses, it becomes clear that Olympus had no intention to develop any more 4/3 lenses. High end or otherwise. They are instead replacing their SHG lenses with PRO lenses. So we should probably consider the EM1 as a bridge camera of sorts. Because the ability to use SHG lenses and get quick AF will become less and less important as more PRO lenses find their way into the hands of M4/3 users.

The long view is that Olympus and Panasonic have created a very nice system that keeps getting better. And we must remember that Panasonic has done some really remarkable things too. Like their GH and GX cameras, and creating some of the very best M4/3 lenses.

Where 4/3 failed to deliver on it's promise, M4/3 seems to be delivering.

Even though Olympus has suffered from bad fiscal and marketing management, no one can deny that their designers and engineers are among the very best in the industry.